Nah an der Grenze zu Jugoslawien, im örtlichen Hühnchengriller und Dorffussballverein spielt dieser Klassekrimi von Wolf Haas. Privatdetektiv Simon Brenner taucht mal wieder tief in den österreichischen Nachbarschaftssumpf, um herauszufinden, wem die Knochen gehören, die inmitten der Abermillionen Hühnchenknochen gefunden wurden.

A Cambridge physicist derives systematically if and how Britain could live on locally generated renewable energy. And in which cases nuclear power or external renewables (think Desertec) need to be part of the equation.

He describes every source of energy that is worth mentioning (wind, solar, hydro, offshore wind, wave, tide, geothermal). Next to that, he looks at consumption (cars, planes, heating/cooling, light, gadgets, food, stuff, public serving). He conveniently uses one unit of measurement everywhere: kWh/day. Currently, the outlook is bleak: we consume way more than we would be able to generate. Then, he describes what he thinks are ways to narrow that gap. Finally he sketches 5 energy plans that would even out.

It is partly estimation and partly prognosis, both seem mostly reasonable and I learned a lot. I bet that he is wrong here or there, but at least it is a documented process (it also has an extended technical appendix).

And entertaining: My recommendation is the new indicator he introduces to compare security of generation technologies (deaths per Megawatt) and when he notes how house-cats kill many many more birds than windmills.

Als ich damals die "Kleines Arschloch"-Comics las, hätte ich nie gedacht, dass Walter Moers nicht nur schwarzen Humor hat, sondern auch ein respektabler Autor sein würde. Selbst als Käpt'n Blaubär - Episoden im Kinderfernsehen zu sehen waren, obwohl man dort schon sah, dass Moers offensichtlich Kreativität im Erfinden von netten Lügengeschichten aufwies wie kaum in Zweiter. Nun hat er doch tatsächlich eine Käpt'n Blaubär Biographie verfasst, die nicht nur ein sehr dickes Buch ist, sondern auch ein kreativer und augenzwinkernder Fantasy-Roman. Hommage und ein bisschen Satire für das Genre zwischen Herr der Ringe und Harry Potter zugleich. Vieleicht ein kleiner Vergleich: Kiss haben Rock'n'Roll satirisch aufs Korn genommen mit ihrem Auftreten, machten aber zugleich auch noch selbst wirklich guten Rock'n'Roll. Ein Genre kann gut gemacht werden, auch während es sich selbst nicht zu ernst nimmt.

Aber: Dieser Roman ist nicht nur gut, durch die leichte Satire (die Vorannahme, dass der Käpt'n vielleicht die eigentliche Wahrheit etwas überzogen erzählt), ist der Weg frei für soviel Kreativität, wie es nur geht. Und Moers zeigt hier wirklich viel davon. Alleine schon die Zeit, die der Käpt'n in einem Wirbelsturm gefangen ist, indem die Zeit unglaublich langsam vergeht und lauter genfangene alte Männer trifft - oder die wahrscheinlich erlogene Geschichte, wie er der erfolgreichste Lügengladiator aller Zeiten in Atlantis war ...
 

There is organisational concept that many of you would might find intriguing: Sociocracy. It is a method of organising people on the basis of consent, while maintaining a form of collaboration that is looking out for its own effectiveness, such that it can actually be used for modern businesses. It is based on the ideas of a dutch Quaker from the early 1900s. It then was further transformed by a dutch entrepreneur who inherited a large electrician company and was looking for a humane way to manage it (and this company is still large and successful after several decades of employing sociocratical concepts).

This book is one of the only newer ones I could find which is not written by one of the original main figures. It was written by two American consultants who fell in love with the concept and are using and promoting it. The authors do three things in this book: First, they give a readable introduction to the history of sociology so far, which is very interesting. Then, they describe the basics of the method, which turns out to be a rather short exercise. The last part is a set of tools and practices for someone looking to introduce Sociocracy to an organisation (e.g. how to do a workshop with employees or partners).

To conclude, the book helped me to learn and understand what this concept is about, though not in too much depth. But as far as it gives an explanation, this book is very readable. I had no use at this point for the third part (applying Sociocracy), so I will not judge on it here.
 

A very readable exploration of a british journalist, who researches the true history of humor under communism. Said humor is known to be the funniest and most cynical humor created by oppressed humans that we know of ('Why, despite all shortages, was the toilet paper in East Germany always 2-ply? Because they had to send a copy of everything they did to Russia.'). Many argue that it helped bring communism to its end. Lewis put this hypothesis to a test and this book is the well-written tale of this test, in which he speaks to many interesting old people all over Eastern Europe (and his eastern-german ex-girlfriend), sprinkled with many jokes. I learned even more about communism history on the way. Maybe not a coincidence that it works well when a resident of one great humor-culture (Britain) researches another great humor-culture.